The Morality of Private War

Conference paper/presentation details

Title
Just war theory, private military and security contractors, and the individual-centric approach

Description
Recent work in the ethics of war has done much to challenge the collectivism of the convention-based, Walzerian just war theory. However, there is still a tendency to judge individuals according to their membership of a group and, in particular, according to the justifiability of their institution‘s war. This paper has two objectives. First, it argues that the rejection of collectivism in just war should go further still. It defends the ‗Individual-Centric Approach‘ to the deep morality of war, which asserts that the justifiability of an individual‘s contribution to the war, rather than the justifiability of the war more generally, determines the moral acceptability of their participation. Second, it presents six implications of the Individual-Centric Approach, including for individual liability to attack in war.